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Hunloke
Woodruff
Hunloke Woodruff was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey in October 1754. He was the only child of merchant Joseph Woodruff and his first wife, Anne Hunloke - daughter of a mariner. His mother died in 1757 and his father re-married. Joesph Woodruff died in 1769 when the boy was fifteen years old. Hunloke attended Princeton until 1774. He then moved to New York City to live with his aunt, Eliza Treat. He studied medicine with Dr. Malachi Treat of King's College.
Probably
through the agency of Treat, he was appointed a surgeon's
mate in the First New York Regiment in July 1775.
Woodruff served on the expedition against Canada.
He later was named surgeon to the Third New York
and served on the frontier. He retired from the army
in 1781. By that time, he had settled in Albany and
had begun to practice medicine.
In
May 1779, he married Maria, the daughter of Colonel
Jacob Lansing. Their eight children were baptized
in Albany churches. He was a member and elder of
the Albany Presbyterian church. He also supported
the Albany Dutch church. A prominent and successful
physician and teacher, Dr. Woodruff was a leader
of the post-war Albany medical community. At one
time, he was the partner of Dr. Wilhelmus Mancius
- who settled in Albany before the war. Together,
they trained a number of prominent physicians. In
1806, Woodruff was president of the Albany Medical
Society.
His
home was on Pearl Street where he became an Albany
mainstay. He saw patients in the small frame building
adjoining his home. He also owned lots in the first
ward. In 1786, he was elected assistant alderman
for the second ward. He served for a year. Later,
he was a trustee of the Albany library and other
community organizations.
Woodruff
suffered from scrofula - which ruined his health.
He filed a will in November of 1810. He stated that
he was "weak in body," provided for his funeral, and left his estate to Mary "as long as she remains my widow." Following hemmoraging from the lungs, Dr. Hunloke Woodruff died in July 1811 at the age of fifty-seven. He was buried in the State Street cemetery.
Sources: The life of Hunloke/Hunlock Woodruff is CAP biography
number 3524. This profile is derived chiefly from
family and community-based resources. The most
useful family resource is Woodruff
Chronicles: A Genealogy, compiled by Ceylon Newton Woodruff (Glendale,
CA, 1967). Online family information. An anecdotal
profile appears in Munsell's Annals
of Albany, volume
9, pp. 91-92. Munsell called him as "a man of philosophical mind, characterized by charity and hospitality, valuing money only as it contributed to the comforts of his family and friends. By the public, he was highly esteemed."
The
catalog of the paintings of Ezra Ames notes two
portraits painted for Doctor Woodruff in 1808 and
1809. One belonged to a family member at the time
of publication. Both remain unlocated!
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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